A significant manifesto in relation to the
dynamic, fragmented world of consumerism, which drives the
expansion of the urban environment, is the publication of the
'Futurist Synthetic Theatre' of 1915. This article was
produced by the Italian futurists, Marinetti, Emilio Settimelli and
Bruno Corra.
"It's
stupid to want to explain with logical minuteness everything
entirely, in all its causes and consequences, because reality
throbs around us, bombards us with squalls of fragments of
inter-connected events, mortised and tenoned together, confused,
mixed up, chaotic. E.g. it's stupid to act out a contest
between two persons (the artist and viewer) always in an orderly,
clear and logical way, since in daily life we nearly always
encounter mere flashes of argument made momentary by our modern
experience, in a tram, a cafe, a railway station, which remain
cinematic in our minds like fragmentary dynamic symphonies of
gestures, words, lights and sounds"
In 1919, the architect Gropius, founder of the
Weimar Bauhouse school, spoke of staging creative work with an
'architectonic spirit', as an urban experience. A Gothic
cathedral was a symbol of the Bauhous' first proclamation, chosen
because medieval cathedrals were the outcomes of the collaborative
effort of a number of practitioners within a common architectural
environment.
A later model of collaborative art work in the
1930s was the shopping arcade, the forerunner of today's retail
mall. Walter Benjamin noted the mythic, fairytale elements in
the shopping arcades that had sprung up in Europe's major
cities. These had been spawned by the series of international
fairs staged from 1851 onwards. They have been described as
'wonderlands of consumerism'.
We therefore have two versions of spectacular art
focused on the sculptural possibilities of space itself involving a
convergence of the works of massed religion with the mass culture
of comodity capitalism. The common feature is a three
dimensional assemby of objects which people can view from more than
one angle.
These ideas are forerunners of the 'installation,
a generic term covering a large area of 21st century practice and
enquiry suggestive of the notion of 'exhibition'. 'display'
or 'assemblage'. Installation describes a kind of art-making
which rejects concentration on one object in favour of a
consideration of the relationships between a number of elements or
the interaction between things and their contexts in a social
space. There is a growing sense that the viewer is important
because an installation's meaning is actively produced in its
reception as much as its production. This is inherent in the idea
of psychogeography, the study of the specific effects of the
geographical environment on the emotions and behaviour of
individuals passing through a number of different ambiences of an
urban environment. The experience of everything around about
has an effect on the disinterested yet engaged
observer. An installation is the environment implying
that the spectator should inhabit it as he or she inhabits the
world. This is an important feature of land art, a place out
of doors where an installation is placed or where the landform is
incorporated into the work of art.
The land artist Robert Smithson formulated the
distinction between a Site, a particular place or location in the
world at large and a Nonsite, a representation in the gallery of
that place in the form of transported material, photographs, maps
and related documentation. Smithson's Site is a place not
only of environmental, but also of historical and even
archaeolgical interests. As such is presents both the
material world and its notional layer as a rich resource for inner
perception and comprehension.